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Date: | Friday 1 December 1939 |
Time: | day |
Type: | Avro Anson Mk I |
Owner/operator: | 63 Sqn RAF |
Registration: | N5073 |
MSN: | |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
Aircraft damage: | Aircraft missing |
Location: | Celtic Sea, off the North coast of Cornwall -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Training |
Departure airport: | RAF Benson, Oxfordshire |
Destination airport: | RAF Benson |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:The Anson I N5073 of 63 Sn RAF took off at 09:30 hrs on 1 December 1939 from RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, for a navigation training flight off Cornwall. It was to fly to Bude and then continue over the sea for 50 miles before returning to base via Trevose Head. It never reached Bude and was lost without a trace over the Celtic Sea.
Weather conditions were poor, the radio had failed and the most likely theory is that the compass was 180 degrees out or mis-read. The aircraft would have been unable to make a sun sight and presumably ran out of fuel before ditching. Search operations did not find any trace of the aircraft or its crew of five.
Crew (all lost):
Pilot Officer Charles Robey Coventry (pilot, aged 22, Australian, Service Number 40606)
Pilot Officer Angus Cameron (Observer, aged 22, Canadian, Service Number 41900)
Sgt Alvin Gordon Gibson (aged 19, Service Number 581212)
AC.2 Hugh Oliver Wilson Gormlay (aged 21, Service Number 543996)
AC.2 James Crompton Buckland (19 years old, Service Number 619734)
Coventry was an Australian who enlisted in the RAF before the war.
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-N9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
2. "Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, vol 1: Aircraft and Crew lost during 1939-1940", by W R Chorley. ISBN 0-904597-85-7
3.
http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/p-o-charles-robey-coventry-rafvr-australian.21846/ 4.
http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939a.htm 5.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1085083/coventry,-charles-robey/ 6.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083902/cameron,-angus/ 7.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1270767/gibson,-alvin-gordon/ 8.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1798586/gormlay,-hugh-oliver-wilson/ 9.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1530760/buckland,-james-crompton/ 10.
https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-avro-652-anson-i-atlantic-ocean-5-killed Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
01-Dec-2017 10:35 |
Laurent Rizzotti |
Added |
28-Apr-2018 21:10 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
28-Apr-2018 21:14 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Source, Narrative] |
10-Nov-2018 22:19 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator] |